Call Us

Call Toll Free

Six-Strikes and You’re Out: the MPAA, RIAA & the Center for Copyright Information

Published July 16, 2012 by Guest Post / Comments Off on Six-Strikes and You’re Out: the MPAA, RIAA & the Center for Copyright Information / Posted in: #law

It was over a year ago that the MPAA and the RIAA announced they would be introducing a groundbreaking anti-piracy plan in conjunction with US ISPs. The scheduled start was set for July 2012, the parties involved state that they are not yet ready to implement the graduated warning program.

In a previous post I reported that once implemented, the Center for Copyright Information (CCI) will begin to take proactive measures to track down online deemed to be pirating media. Copyright infringement violators will be progressively warned about their actions, escalating over 5-6 notifications until the ISP will drastically cap the user’s bandwidth or even revoke access.

"With regards to timing, CCI is rigorously working towards implementing the Copyright Alert System in a way that is consistent with the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and with the needs of subscribers," a spokesperson stated.

The CCI is now hoping that ISPs will begin sending out graduated warnings later this year, but have not commented as to a reason for the delays. Such large delays it the plans implementation suggests that there have been logistical issues in the plan’s implementation.

"At this time, CCI is not ready to announce the experts we will use to evaluate the methodologies used by the content owners and ISPs to identify alleged piracy and deliver notices to the right consumers," said a CCI spokesperson.

Other Concerns

It has been suggested that the company hired to conduct tracking may not be made public to curb protests.

There are increasing amounts of new subscribers to VPN Internet providers in the US, presumably in anticipation of the schemes implementation.

There are increasing fears that backdoors will be used in the deal which may allow the MPAA and RIAA to request personal details of repeats infringers for legal action.

There has been no clear definition of what will happen to third party providers (free wi-fi providers) in this graduated six-strikes theme.

In a controlled state, who polices the police?

Certainly the issues of copyright protection and privacy have a long way to develop before a mutually beneficial method is established that protects everyone involved and allows the end user sufficient freedom.